1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for printing a digital image.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are conventional digital still cameras that can store shot digital images on a storage medium, and exchange data with an external device connected thereto. When printing shot digital images on a paper medium, the digital still cameras temporarily send the digital images stored on the storage medium to an external data device, such as a personal computer. The digital images are, then, output to a printing apparatus using an edit and print function (application) of the external data device.
Alternatively, a user takes out the storage medium from the digital still camera, and takes the storage medium to a development, printing, enlargement (DPE) shop where digital images stored on the storage medium are printed out, or the user prints the digital images using a printer for a digital still camera sited at the shop.
Since printing digital images shot by a digital still camera requires an external storage device or the like, printing is not handy.
There are practical printing apparatuses including a function of exchanging data with a digital still camera connected thereto, and printing image data received from the digital still camera.
Such a function of the printing apparatuses is called a “direct print function”.
Digital images shot by a digital still camera can be printed easily by using the printing apparatus including the direct print function.
However, the user uses the direct print function by using a display unit and an operation unit provided on the digital still camera. This lowers the degree of freedom of printing, such as the layout, and can provide only relatively simple prints as compared with printing performed by using the external data device.
There is a system that enhances the compatibility on a print job among devices manufactured by different makers by sending device print information included in a printer when a printer is connected to a digital still camera (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-64740).
Although the above system sends a paper size as print information, the system does not send information on an orientation of the paper set on a paper feed tray.
In a printing apparatus including more than one paper feed tray, when sheets of paper of the same size are stored on the paper feed trays in a vertical orientation, which is a mode of feeding the sheets of paper in a direction orthogonal to the short side of the paper (vertically elongated direction), and in a horizontal orientation, which is a mode of feeding the sheets of paper in a direction orthogonal to the long side of the paper (horizontally elongated direction), the digital still camera is informed of print information lacking information on the paper orientation. Accordingly, information on the paper orientation is not informed to the printing apparatus, therefore, the printing apparatus processes job information only on the paper size, requiring determination on from which paper feed tray, the sheets of paper should be fed.
In this case, if a control or a drawing process involving paper feeding from the paper feed tray of which feeding direction is fixed to a direction to feed a sheet in a vertical orientation is performed, when sheets of paper of a horizontal orientation are stored and sheets of paper of a vertical orientation are not stored on the paper feed tray, printing for sheets of paper of the horizontal orientation may not be performed even though the papers are stored in the proper direction. If printing is forcibly performed on the sheets of paper of the horizontal orientation with the layout of the sheets of paper of the vertical orientation, images to be printed out on a sheet are partly missing.